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Quicksand Alpine ​

This package bundles a pre-built Alpine Linux 3.23 VM image for the quicksand agent harness. No downloads required after installation.

Alpine is lightweight and boots quickly, making it ideal for AI agents that need fast sandbox startup.

Why Alpine? ​

Alpine Linux is a lightweight distribution that offers:

  • Smaller image size: ~75MB vs ~300MB for Ubuntu
  • Faster boot time: Less to load means quicker startup
  • Minimal attack surface: Only essential packages included
  • musl libc: Smaller, simpler C library

Use Alpine when you need fast, lightweight sandboxes. Use Ubuntu when you need broader package compatibility or glibc-dependent software.

Installation ​

bash
pip install 'quick-sandbox[qemu,alpine]'

Or install separately:

bash
pip install quick-sandbox
quicksand install alpine

Usage ​

python
import asyncio
from quicksand import AlpineSandbox

async def main():
    async with AlpineSandbox() as sb:
        result = await sb.execute("cat /etc/os-release")
        print(result.stdout)

asyncio.run(main())

With custom config ​

python
from quicksand import AlpineSandbox

async with AlpineSandbox(memory="512M", cpus=2) as sb:
    result = await sb.execute("uname -a")

Or using Sandbox directly:

python
from quicksand import Sandbox

async with Sandbox(image="alpine", memory="512M", cpus=2) as sb:
    result = await sb.execute("uname -a")

What's Included ​

The Alpine 3.23 image includes:

  • Python 3
  • Bash shell
  • curl, ca-certificates
  • Networking tools (iproute2, iputils-ping)
  • The quicksand agent (pre-installed)

Installing Additional Packages ​

Alpine uses apk for package management:

python
async with AlpineSandbox() as sb:
    # Install packages
    await sb.execute("apk add --no-cache git nodejs npm")

    # Use them
    result = await sb.execute("node --version")
    print(result.stdout)

Package Size ​

The wheel is ~75MB, much smaller than Ubuntu (~300MB) because Alpine is a minimal distribution. This makes it faster to download and install.

License ​

MIT